Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993 TAG: 9302060018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
`CARMEN' NOT A THRILL, BUT STILL SATISFYING
The finest superstar vehicle ever created for a mezzo-soprano did a one-night stand in Radford Thursday night. The New York City Opera National Company's production of "Carmen" by Georges Bizet played to a sold-out house at Radford University's Preston Hall.It was a competent production in all respects, from scenery to singing to orchestra. So competent that you longed at times for something, anything, out of the ordinary that would lift the show even momentarily above the level of "pretty good."
However, a pretty good "Carmen" makes for a fine night in most anybody's book, and there were a lot of satisfied customers when the final curtain fell at 11 p.m. The City Opera traveling troupe earned loud and sustained applause and even a few bravos.
Bizet wrote this opera in the days when audiences demanded a strong, basic story line with an unmistakable moral, and the moral of this one is straight and to the point:
If you're a country boy, stick to the good Catholic girl mama has chosen for you and don't go getting involved with sexy gypsies, who invariably are bad for your health.
This edition of "Carmen" has been traveling for nine weeks at a stretch, rotating three different mezzos in the role of Carmen the gypsy, two different Don Joses and several Escamillos. Director Dona Vaughn has mounted a traditional production with no Peter Sellers-type gimmicks and traditional period costumes (except for modern-style military uniforms, which were anachronistic amid swords, blunderbusses and muskets).
Loy Arcenas' set was adequate, though every locale - from the plaza outside the cigarette factory to Lillas Pastia's tavern to the square next to the bull ring - looked more or less like the inside of a cave.
Carmen was sung by Lori Brown Mirabal. Though not the actress that Opera Roanoke audiences witnessed in Michelle Sarkasian last year, her throaty mezzo was just what the role demands. With a rather wide vibrato, she had all the low range she needed in her famous arias "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" and "Seguidilla - Pres des remparts de Seville." Sexy rather than pretty, she was understandably irresistible to the hapless Don Jose.
Don Jose was tenor Yuxin Li, who left his native China in 1988 to study at the New England Conservatory. Like much else in this production, he was good without being particularly exciting.
Angela Randell was making her debut with the New York City Opera National Company. As Don Jose's girlfriend, Micaela, whose steady virtue loses out to Carmen's wicked attractiveness, she had some good moments. Her duet with Li, "Parle-moi de ma mere," was probably the finest duet of the night. Her touching aria "Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante" was punctuated by a truly spectacular clam from the horn section, which provided a somewhat less remarkable serving of seafood toward the end of the same song.
Bass-baritone Mark Moliterno turned in a fine Escamillo, the braggart bullfighter. Fellow bass-baritone Daniel Smith was equally convincing as Captain Zuniga.
The small orchestra of about 30 players spilled out of the Preston Hall pit, with harpist and tympanist positioned practically in the left and right exits. It was a fine little orchestra, many of whose members also play with the more prestigious City Opera orchestra back home, and music director Joseph Colaneri made them sound twice their size at times.
The Preston Hall crowd liked this three-hour production, and signaled its approval with generous applause.
Seth Williamson produces feature news stories and a classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.